“I chose to be a writer because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” says Jennie Wood. She is the creator of Flutter, a series of graphic novels about Lily Welsh, a teenager who shape-shifts into a boy to get the girl. “It’s the most personal and honest thing I’ve written,” says Wood, who also contributes to FUBAR, a New York Times-bestselling comic anthology. The author was inspired by her own experiences growing up in a conservative southern town surrounded by male cousins who “were always bringing girls to the movie theater where I worked during high school,” she says. “I sold tickets and made popcorn while they were in the theater making out. Over time, I learned to be comfortable in my own skin and that I could be loved by a woman as a woman. It was very freeing to write about that journey.” Currently Wood is recording an original soundtrack for her latest novel, A Boy Like Me. “Writing, like coming out, is all about facing that scary truth inside—getting it out into the world no matter how it’s received,” Wood says. “It’s hard to write honestly when you’re living a lie.” –NHM